


a few months

by heyvelrisa



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, At least in the end, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, OC/OC - Freeform, kinda??, tw minor desc of violence/death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:41:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25661524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyvelrisa/pseuds/heyvelrisa
Summary: Addi was only supposed to be gone for a few months. Isn’t it funny how time flies?
Relationships: Meribelle/Addi Alicastor
Kudos: 2





	a few months

**Author's Note:**

> so long story short i’m in a group chat where we’re all working on a story!! here is a small bit of lore (it’s not even lore this is just self-indulgence at its finest) for meribelle and addi (who belongs to @addy_snow5 on twitter)!! they are wives and addi is just trying to protect meribelle from what she doesn’t know.
> 
> hope you enjoy!!

“Are you sure you have to leave?”

Meribelle took Addi’s hands in her own, focusing on the weight of them, the familiar chill of her skin. She fiddled with the thin ring of metal around her finger. 

“I won’t be long.” Addi’s hands slipped from Meribelle’s, arms wrapping around her snugly. Meribelle closed her eyes and leaned into her embrace. “A few months at the most. You know I wouldn’t leave you here alone if I didn’t have to.”

“But you still haven’t told me exactly what it is that has to be done.” Meribelle had a right to be worried. She and Addi had been perfectly content for a few years now, living in their quiet village home together. For the past couple of months, though, something had been off. Addi was having nightmares that she refused to talk about, and she’d been so much more distant. Obviously, she was entitled to her privacy, but it was so out of character for her, and it worried Meribelle. Now, she was going off on a boat for reasons that she “couldn’t explain” to Meribelle, and it was eating away at her. She was going to miss her terribly. 

“You’ll write me letters, won’t you?” She pulled back to look at Addi, trying to keep from crying. Again. Addi’s eyes softened. 

“Of course I will, love. I’m going to miss you so much.” Addi brushed her hair out of her eyes, kissed her forehead. “You stay out of trouble while I’m gone.”

Meribelle managed a weak smile. “Like I’m the troublemaker.” 

Addi giggled. “Maybe.” Her smile faded a little. “I’ll be back before you know it, love.”

“Stay safe,” Meribelle whispered. Addi gave her one last kiss, squeezed her hands one last time, and walked with her bags out the door. 

Meribelle stood there watching the door for a long time. Exactly how long, she didn’t know, but it was long enough for the cat to start meowing at her, hungry for dinner. She looked down at her hand, the gold band on her finger, and took a shaky breath. 

A few months without Addi would be fine, right?

•••

Meribelle woke up in a cold sweat. 

It had been a while since she’d had a nightmare, and in all fairness, the fact that she hadn’t woken up screaming was pretty impressive. Still, she could feel herself trembling as she fumbled around to light her oil lamp, her eyes too slow to adjust to the dark night around her. When she finally had some light, she looked to the other side of her bed, empty and cold as it had been for the last year and a half. 

She was sick of having night terrors about Addi dying in horrific ways. The possibilities running though her mind during the day were enough, weren’t they? Did the torment have to bleed into the night as well? The images of Addi drowning at sea, being kidnapped, a great plethora of awful ways to die, had been burned into her brain by now. It was exhausting at this point, and on top of the obviously awful feeling of imagining something like that, Meribelle just missed her wife. 

She’d half expected her trip to take longer that Addi had anticipated. Ships got held back, lost at sea, all sorts of things that could delay a trip. But an entire year’s worth of delay, plus some extra change? It was almost too much for her to handle. And Addi had written letters at first, just like she’d promised. For the first six months, that is. None of the letters told Meribelle anything about why she was there. She gave a vague rundown of what she had been doing in the time between each letter. Most of what she seemed to be doing was researching at libraries, and Meribelle had a feeling that she had been doing that here before she’d left, too. Maybe that was why she’d been so distant. But her letters only went as specific to say that she was researching miscellaneous religions and how they tied together. Nothing about where the sudden interest had come from, or what she was really looking for, but at least it had been something. There had been nothing but radio static for the past year. 

Now, Meribelle reached into the drawer of her bedside table and pulled out the last letter she’d sent, the one on top of the pile. The papers had yet to get terribly crinkled and old, especially her more recent ones, but even so, the ink had already begun to fade. Meribelle gently ran her fingers along the faded letters, her familiar handwriting, the only thing she really had left of her wife since after she had left, and began to read. 

My Dearest,

I’m sorry if this letter is late getting to you. Post has been awfully stubborn lately, or so I’ve heard, and letters are talking longer to be delivered. Your last letter took quite a while to get here. Which, by the way, that letter has been stored with the others you’ve given me. I look over them quite often. If I had a copper coin for every time I’d thought about you in this trip, we’d be rich beyond comprehension. I miss you more than you could imagine. 

My research, for once, has actually been going well. I found a lead quite a while ago, and I’ve managed to follow it further than I originally realized. I think that within the next month or so I may even be able to come back home to you. And I’m going to do my damned hardest to hold myself to that. I don’t like the idea of going a few weeks without you. The fact thag I’ve already been gone for this long is killing me. But I’ll see you again soon, and that’s a promise. 

I’m sorry for keeping this letter briefer than my last few, but know that I’m doing everything I can to get back to you now. I hope you and Greyrock are holding up at home. I miss the cat, too. 

Take care of yourself. Stay out of trouble. I’ll see you again soon. 

With all of my love,

Addi

Meribelle held the letter with shaking hands, poring over it at least three times. She basically had the letter memorized at this point, she’d read it so many times, but it didn’t lessen the pain. In fact, it probably made it worse, in the grand scheme of things. But what else was she supposed to do?

Meribelle had sent a letter in return to the one she was holding now. She couldn’t even remember what it had said. They all were mostly the same anyway. I miss you. I love you. What’s going on? I’m glad you’re safe. 

Oh, how long had she been crying?

She sniffled, trying to figure out how long she’d been sobbing over the letter, when something moved in the corner of her eye. She looked over to see Greyrock, the cat, staring at the bedroom door, eyes wide, ears straight up, tail swaying anxiously. There was a click from outside of the bedroom.

Greyrock jumped off of the bed at the same time that Meribelle stood up. She haphazardly shoved the letter back into the drawer of the nightstand, following Greyrock out of the bedroom. Meribelle’s breaths came short and quick. Something— someone— was in her house. 

There were footsteps, and between that and the fact that the light of her bedroom oil lamp only stretched so far, and she couldn’t see much past the few floorboards in front of her, but there was a shaky silhouette. Meribelle inhales sharply. 

“What do you want?” she asked into the dark, her voice shaky. What the hell are you supposed to do when someone breaks into your house?

“Oh, gods above,” a soft voice said, and Meribelle’s blood ran cold for a moment. A very familiar voice. There was the sound of a chest falling onto the floor.

The figure came forward, into the gentle light, and Meribelle could feel her eyes going wet with tears all over again. Familiar arms wrapped in unfamiliar clothes snakes around Meribelle’s waist, and Meribelle buried her face in the figure’s shoulder. 

“Addi,” she whimpered in a broken voice. Her hair was chopping cut, not as clean as it normally was, and there were odd purple markings littering her skin, and her clothes were scratchy and unfamiliar, and one of her horns was jagged and broken, but it was Addi. 

Then there was her lips, against Meribelle’s ear, alternating between whispering apologies and “I love you”s and leaving gentle kisses, and it was all Meribelle could do to keep from sobbing so hard her lungs gave out. 

Finally, after a long while, she managed to reach up and grip Addi’s shoulder, hushing her under her breath. 

“Dear, come back to bed, please,” Meribelle whispered, wrapping her arms around her neck. “You’re home.”

Addi buried her nose in her hair, and Meribelle could feel her smile against her head. 

“I’m home.”


End file.
